Jerusalem – Israel’s Defense Ministry apologized Monday for the treatment of a pregnant American news photographer who said she was strip searched and humiliated by Israeli soldiers during a security check.
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Lynsey Addario, who was on assignment for the New York Times, had requested that she not be forced to go through an X-ray machine as she entered Israel from the Gaza Strip because of concerns for her unborn baby.
Instead, she wrote in a letter to the ministry, she was forced through the machine three times as soldiers “watched and laughed from above.” She said she was then taken into a room where she was ordered by a female worker to strip down to her underwear.
In the Oct. 25 letter sent by the newspaper said Addario, a Pulitzer Prize winner who is based in India and has worked in more than 60 countries, had never been treated with “such blatant cruelty.”
The ministry said an investigation found that the search followed procedures but noted that Addario’s request to avoid the X-ray machine had not been properly relayed.
Addario said she made the request not to go through the X-ray machine before arriving at the crossing.
“We would like to apologize for this particular mishap in coordination and any trouble it may subsequently have caused to those involved,” the statement said.
It said that security is tight on the border with Gaza “in order to prevent terror from targeting and reaching Israel’s citizens.”
The defense ministry has “decided to hone the procedure for foreign journalists,” it said.
The New York Times bureau chief in Israel, Ethan Bronner, welcomed the planned changes but said the newspaper remains shocked at the treatment Addario received and how long the investigation took.
Foreign journalists working in Israel have repeatedly complained of overly intrusive security checks by of Israeli authorities. Israel says the inspections are necessary measures.
The TSA workers in this country are just as bad, as what this journalist experienced. This was a report of another journalist who came to Ben-Gurion airport, and had the contents of her luggage all nicely folded and pressed. However, when Israeli security went through her luggage, they threw everything in several directions. When they were finished with their inspection, she asked them to replace the luggage as they found it, they told her “we are not a packing service”!
the ny times is welcome to stay home. they never have anything good to say about jews and especially israel.
They apologized only because they found out she was a journalist. For constantly humiliating the fruma yideen you wont hear a peep
Bah! These Anti-Semite would blast Israel regardless if the treatment she would have received.
Had the Israelis treated her with white glove treatment, the article would have been shameful for Israel anyway.
The Gaza Strip is no place for a pregnant photographer worried about her unborn child.
If she was really concerned for her unborn baby she would have not gone to Gaza. And she had the option of backing out from the crossing and returning to Israel and not having to go through the Xray.
If you look at the picture of her, she look Palestinian. They should still be courteous but they have to put security over PR. Better a humiliated NYT journalist than blown up Israelis.
The “Objective” press including the New York Times have a consistent record
of being biased against Israel in their reporting. Female suicide bombers have taken advantage of Israel and tried to bomb a hosptial where they have gone for treatment. What does a reporter going into such a volatable zone expect. If this reporter was so concerned about her baby she should stay home.
If she is so concerned about the health of her unborn baby, she should just not be out on assignments in dangerous places.
Look at her (and try to compose yourself!)! She looks like a yishmaeli all the way. Pregnant Yishmaelim blow themselves up too. They did the right thing and I hope they do the same thing 100 of the next hundred times too!
Addario, a Pulitzer Prize winner who is based in India and has worked in more than 60 countries, had never been treated with “such blatant cruelty.”
Not even when she was kidnapped and raped in Libya?